Smarter Bike Services

What is the 529 Garage?

It's community watch for your bike

Register your bike

Quickly capture all the important information about your bike from your computer or your smartphone. It's free!

Shield your bike

Our tamper resistant 529 Shield acts as a deterrant, warning would-be thieves to keep their paws off your bike, and making it easier to find you if your bike is recovered.

Start your alert

Make the most of the 529 community to find your stolen bike. Our community includes over 400 law enforcement agencies, universities, bike clubs and bike shops around the world, as well as 529 users like you.

Get community help

Thousands of bikes are recovered by law enforcement and the community. If your bike is registered, it's easy to get back to you!

Help #endbiketheft

Be sure to search our registry to make sure that a bike you are considering buying wasn't reported stolen. And, if you find a bike, or see something suspicious, post it with us to help get it back to it's owner.

Our Story

In 2013, we set out to create a sustainable program that helps reduce bike theft, promote cycling, and make cities and campuses more bike friendly. The result is the 529 Garage.

Over the last 2 decades, bike theft in North America has grown to epidemic proportions - affecting about 2 million riders each year. Beyond the half-billion dollar cycling black market, many stolen bikes are involved in secondary crimes - serving as a modern “getaway vehicle” for criminals.

Our strategy is simple - galvanize riders, shops, police, schools and cities with a common set of tools that allow communities to become better organized than the criminals. Cities that we have joined forces with have seen meaningful, double-digit results in the first two years.

From our Partners

“

Two of my bikes were stolen out my garage at around 9am in the morning. By noon that afternoon, an officer working the Downtown Eastside, found one of my bikes and alerted me, through Project 529, that it had been found. Really cool as the email that came contained a picture of the officer and the recovered bike. One's emotions go from feeling violated to elation within a single day. From the picture, I knew that he had found it on Hastings Street. Thank you to everyone who made it happen, including Officer (Lee) who found it, and the volunteers helping people register their bikes.

Calvin Dang
Canadian Cyclist

“

Biking is a huge part of my life - I depend heavily on my bike to get to work. I was devastated when my bike was stolen in Vancouver. Thanks to the collaboration between Project 529 and the VPD I was able to recover my stolen bike. I am so grateful to live in a city that has implemented this program and recognizes the importance in recovering stolen bikes. Project 529 has helped to cultivate an environment where people are protected from bike theft and are therefore more encouraged to choose cycling.

After years of spreadsheet based registration records and ugly stickers that never really stuck, we couldn’t have been more excited to partner with Project 529 to bring this easy to use program to our campus community. Our students love being able to use the phone in their pocket to quickly get their bike registered and our admins love being able to quickly find the information on those bikes and their owners when they need them.

Aaron Madrid
Purdue University

“

The cost of bicycle theft is bigger than the loss of the bike. It discourages cycling, invites unsavory people to our campus and ultimately hurts our university’s brand. 529 Garage is a welcome addition to the UO campus.

Paula Ellison
University of Oregon

“

Many years working bike theft in Portland has demonstrated the importance of the community tackling this problem together. Registration has always been the weakest link. If we can help cyclists register their bikes effectively, we will crush bike theft.

David Sanders
Portland Police Bureau

“

529 Garage is an awesome match for us. It lets us protect our inventory and rental fleet and helps us get customers in the door. But the real win is helping rescue our customers’ bikes.